“A convicted IRA bomber (Dolours Price) claimed that Adams had sanctioned a series of attacks on London in 1972, including the bombing of the Old Bailey, which killed one man and injured 200 more, according to the Telegraph.

Price has given a fresh series of interviews in which she makes claims about Adams, which she says are the same as she made in the tapes being sought by the police. The bomber, who served eight years in prison for playing a leading role in the Old Bailey bomb plot, alleged that:

Adams was her “Officer Commanding” in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional IRA

He was involved in approving an IRA bombing campaign on mainland Britain and asked for people to volunteer for it, stating it would be a “hanging offence” if they were captured;

Adams ordered her to drive alleged informers across the border from Northern Ireland into the Republic, where they would later be executed.

Adams denies each of the allegations. A spokesman for Sinn Féin said last night: “The allegations purportedly made by Dolours Price are not new and have been vehemently denied by Mr Adams before. Mr Adams entirely rejects these unsubstantiated allegations

Price has agreed to be interviewed about what she told the Boston College researchers, and her claims of the contents of the tapes are published by The Sunday Telegraph today. They put her at odds with Ed Moloney, a documentary-maker who was commissioned to carry out the research for the college. Earlier this month, he issued a statement in which he claimed that there was no mention of Adams or Mrs McConville in Price’s testimony.

In a series of interviews at her home in a suburb of Dublin, she outlined what she said she told the researchers and outlined allegations about Adams being a key figure in the IRA during the early 1970s.

That is all well and good Dolours putting on tape what Adams told her to do. It’s not the same as an Ulster shinners tape of a Loyalist band playing out side an empty church.

If its not an Ulster shinner tape, no Ulster republican or Ulster nationalist will believe it, just watch the “nothing to see here move along” replies.

ArdoyneUnionist

Near the end of the video Brendan Hughes gives an account of Adams being his CO, However I would recommend that you watch all the video. Hughes said and I paraphrase. Adams denying he was in the IRA is like Hitler denying the Holocaust.

Ed Moloney gives his account of Adams being a leading member of the IRA and making IRA military policy.

Obviously, Adams was involved in planning violent campaigns and strategy, if not in 72 than shortly thereafter. The only noteworthy aspect of this is that it directly contradicts Moloney’s claims about the BC tapes.

Moloney may have had no choice but to lie in a desperate attempt to keep the promises he made to those who agreed to be interviewed, promises (about the tapes not being released until after their deaths) that he could not keep.

ArdoyneUnionist

“Price, a convicted IRA bomber, accuses the Louth TD of not only approving the bombing of targets in Britain — including London’s Old Bailey — but of personally ordering the abduction of several people whom the IRA considered to be traitors”.

“She claims that the plan to bomb London was hers and was explicitly approved by Adams, in what she claims was his role as “officer commanding” of the organisation’s Belfast brigade.

“She said: “I had long been of the opinion that fight as we could, the Brits would let us keep going so long as the death and destruction was kept at a respectable distance from mother England.

“I was convinced that a short, sharp shock, an incursion into the heart of the Empire, would be more effective than 20 car bombs in any part of the north of Ireland.

“I presented the plan to Gerry Adams and he then had to take it to the whole brigade staff — people such as Ivor Bell. They then had to sent it up to the general headquarters staff and then to Sean MacStiofain, then the chief of staff. They had to discuss and sanction it, which they did.”

She went on: “For the meeting, I sat on the arm of Adams’ chair. Adams started talking and said it was a big, dangerous operation. He said, ‘This could be a hanging job’.

“He said, ‘If anyone doesn’t want to go, they should up and leave now through the back door at 10-minute intervals.’ The ones that were left were the ones that went. I was left organising it, to be the OC of the whole shebang.”

“It is not enough to say we were born to be republicans; it’s more precise to say republicanism is part of our DNA,” she said.

“In our family, republicanism came before Catholicism. Growing up as children, we did not have normal bedtime stories of Little Red Riding Hood or the like. My father used to sit us on his knee and tell us stories about how he had gone off to war in 1939, aged 19, to bomb the English.”

Now there’s an interesting insight into the Ulster republican mindset. Nursed to stories of daring do and murder.

Neil

A mindset of at least a person. Just because you see a black cow it doesn’t mean all cows are black. It means you saw a black cow.

Alias

Actually, Moloney said in his affidavit that Price didn’t mention Jean McConville or claim that Adams or any other PIRA member told her to ‘disappear’ people. We don’t know if that is the case or not but given that Moloney is credible and Price isn’t, and also that an affidavit is made under oath or penalty of perjury, the benefit of the doubt goes to Moloney.

If Price is now claiming to have put the de facto content of her tape into the public domain then Moloney is no longer under any moral obligation to keep the de jure content out of public domain and should, accordingly, withdraw his objection about releasing the tape to the PSNI.

Incidentally, it is notable that this wretched woman is concerned only about her own bitter sense of betrayal, having no remorse for her victims or regret for the utter futility of her actions.

The ‘crimes’ that the Shinners murdered Jean McConville for allegedly committing are the very same ‘crimes’ that they now implore others to commit, i.e. to report murder gang activity to the poice. That just shows you how deranged these muppets are. Plus, of course, if the muppets want to call their squalid sectarian murder campaign a war, then let’s call Jean McConville’s murder and ‘disappearing’ a war crime.

Mick do you think Adams will sue anyone for putting on here what has been said on other sites????

Granni Trixie

Even allowing for Delores being a camakaisi pilot (don’t know where that came from but know that it means suicide) she is consistent with Hughes who puts Adams in the frame of IRA leaders involved in you know what but inconsistent with his account of his own non involvement in the IRA.

Neil

So we can extrapolate that a number of people think Gerry was in the IRA. I’d heard that. Now, prove it.

PeterBrown

Neil

it is only on rare occasions that facts such as this can be proved absolutely and only slightly more frequently that they are proved beyond a reasonable doubt – what is more common is where it obviously not true to any reasonable person and yet it is still denied, if we required absolute proof of everything there would be a lot fewer threads on this site!

socaire

So Adams was high up in the Provos and authorised certain actions. So? Do you think anything will come of it? The British have set us a fine example in the case of bomber Harris, haven’t they?

You’ll not get very far, socaire, if you don’t go back far enough. 1690 was just too recent.

Rory Carr

Given the animus that exists towards Adams by both Hughes and Price (and clearly articulted by both) it is clear that the only parts of their recollections which we can treat with any degree of seriousness are those whe they admit to their own part in armed activity and even that must be treated with caution given the serious problem with alcohol shared by both and the precarious state of Ms. Price’s mental health.

And of course Alias is correct to adduce that Ed Moloney’s affadavit must hold more credibility than Ms. Price’s reported revelations tp the Sunday Telegraph, since Moloney faces charges of perjury if Ms. Price’s claims accurate/ If, on the other hand the tapes support Moloney’s affadavit, then, apart from some egg on the face of the Sunday Telegraph (great choice, Dolours, by rhe way) journalist, the only risk to Ms. Price’s reputation would be that some might consider that her recall is imperfect, to say the least.

socaire

I am merely pointing out, Joe, that being accused of war crimes is not necessarily the end of one’s career. I just chose the murderer Harris as a well known example. If I was aware of the present day ‘Harrises’ in Afghanistan, I would point the finger at them for their collateral damage. BTW tell us again why Britain is in Afghanistan/Iraq?

It’s way off topic but I’ll tell you what I tell anyone who asks – I’m a Canadian who came from Ireland.

Alias

Incidentally, even if the content of the tapes isn’t what she now claims them to be (and, therefore, she hasn’t actually placed the content into the public domain), Moloney is still released from his obligation to keep her tape private until after her death since her statements clearly support the mechanism by which it is conceeded that the tapes can be handed over to the PSNI, i.e. by the interviewee revealing content, or claiming content, that is likely to be of specific interest to the police and therefore not something the police would be looking for as part of a fishing expedition. Moloney and McIntyre should give up the ghost in this case.

socaire

I suppose we are British who came from Ireland 🙂 I can’t understand why some people are thrashing around trying – by any means – to pin something on Adams. Sinn Féin are governing the .75 Province. Live with it!

John Ó Néill

As far as most published accounts go – IRA campaigns in Britain were organised through its GHQ in Dublin, not the Belfast Brigade. Whether the OC of the Belfast Brigade would have had any operational knowledge of the details of any actions in Britain (either before or after) isn’t clear (as few former OCs have given detailed accounts) but actually seems unlikely given the scope of what was going on in Belfast in 1972.

It doesn’t inspire confidence in the reliability or veracity of the various layers here or that everyone’s stories are shunting around here either. If you factor in the continued government recourse to obscuring the past with spook stories or that Gerry Adams (unlike McGuinness) never was sentenced for IRA membership but instead has created a circular narrative he can’t seem to escape from.

wild turkey

‘Are you Irish-Canadian or Canadian-Irish or are you still British?’

Mr Joe. wow, do the Mounties (Royal Canadian variety) enforce the racial purity laws? if so, ya better watch out. and by the way, how many of your grandparents are irish, and we are talking pure irish? did any of your grandparents or great grandparents take arms against Germany in WWI or WWII? if yes, you’re really not a genuine….. ah, you can figure out the rest.

‘Are you Irish-Canadian or Canadian-Irish or are you still British?’

ah, game set and match to Mr Joe. but not to worry Socaire, the Romney campaign is looking for nuanced articulate advocates and speech writers. you’ll fit right in.

Alias

McGuinness also created that “circular narrative” but escaped from it out of necessity at the Saville Tribunal.

Given that this case in before the High Court in NI, it would seem that Price is conspiring (or the newspaper is conspiring) to ensure that her comments have a bearing on the outcome of that case.

Moloney is probably gambling that the Court will ask to hear the tape in private to judge if his affidavit is true but if it doesn’t then it could well cite these comments in support of the PSNI claim.

socaire

Should I take this turkey seriously, joe?

Henry94

Price’s problem is not that bombings took place but that they stopped. She blames Adams for the end of the violence and has an obvious motivation for trying to damage him. How charming to see the newspapers who were most hostile to the peace process from day one getting down into the gutter with the dissidents. They attacked John Hume for talking to republicans who wanted peace and now they are working with those who want war.

You could cal it an attack on the peace process but the process is too strong to be thrown of track by something like this. It looks more like mere personal vengeance. Imagine having someone in your life that you truly hated and knowing that there was a ready audience for any bad thing you could say about them. You’d want to be a saint to stick to the truth. I doubt I could but maybe Price is a saint.

GEF

“Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams to face questions in Irish parliament about his IRA past Irish politicians are to demand that Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams resigns as a member of the Dublin parliament in the wake of the latest claims by IRA member Dolours Price.”

Henry94 “You’d want to be a saint to stick to the truth. I doubt I could but maybe Price is a saint.” Of course if the truth is sufficiently damning, why would you lie?

ArdoyneUnionist

“Delours sees the world in broad strokes. If she’s prepared to admit her role in the fight, she thinks others should too. This includes people like Gerry Adams, now a member of the Irish parliament and a major figure in the current peace deal. He’s always denied ever being in the IRA, but Delours says he gave her orders.

“Who sent me to London? Who sent me to London to blow it up?” she questioned. Adams”

“While I have considered the possibility of legal action on occasion, in the past, I have been advised by my own legal advisers that such a course would be financially beyond my means.”

Naw Gerry, your legal advisers told you that you wouldn’t stand a chance in hell of getting anyone to believe what you say, leaving aside your track record of lying…the IRA, your brother etc, theres also the little case of the time you claimed, while in jail, to have sung a song a year before it was in fact wrote and released…

Did I not notice Rory (I’m not a Shinner) Carr, on the way down, spitting out his usual bile in defence of Adams?

Rory, anyone so strongly defensive of Gerry Adams would – should he be a member of SF – be the owner of 3 houses…at least. A nice holiday home in Portugal….And be the proud owner of a bar…or two.

It’s a wonder they haven’t talent spotted you already.

Alias

Gerry appears to be confusing his legal advisors with his financial advisors.

Anyway, Gerry has a great sense of humour spinning the yarn that the only reason he didn’t want to get Dolours Price into court to talk about Jean McConville is because he’d have to sell his holiday home in Donegal.

ArdoyneUnionist

Former IRA man Anthony McIntyre loses Dolours Price case.

“A former IRA man turned-writer has lost a High Court bid to prevent police taking possession of his interviews with a convicted bomber.

Anthony McIntyre was seeking to restrain disclosure of confidential archived material compiled for a history project at Boston College.

PSNI detectives wanted access to all his interviews with Dolours Price.

It is part of their investigation into the 1972 murder of Jean McConville, one of the so-called Disappeared.

Mr McIntyre claimed releasing the tapes and transcripts to police would put him under greater threat of being killed by dissident republicans who would perceive it as a betrayal of the IRA’s code of silence”.

“Taoiseach Enda Kenny last night dramatically accused Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams of being a member of the IRA’s army council.

Speaking at his party’s presidential dinner, Mr Kenny said that from materials and documents he had read, it was his opinion that Mr Adams was not only an IRA member but also a senior figure on its army council.

“From all the evidence I have read and from all the evidence I have heard, I believe Gerry Adams was a member of the IRA and I was led to believe he was also a member of the army council,” he said.

Mr Kenny said that Mr Adams’s calls for a truth commission in the North would count for nothing unless he was honest about his role during the Troubles, which claimed more than 3,000 lives.

“When Deputy Adams says to me he wants a truth and reconciliation commission, I’d like him to be absolutely truthful about this” he said.

He also contrasted Mr Adams’s continual denial of being in the IRA with the admission by Martin McGuinness about his senior role in the paramilitary organisation”.

McIntyre’s case was frankly a bit stupid. Dissident republicans would be delighted to see Adams’s role in the troubles highlighted as they would perceive it as also highlighting his hypocrisy towards them.

His former comrade in arms Price has already spoken about his role repeatedly without facing any threat froim dissidents. Indeed the Price sisters appear to be very popular in those circles.

The only thing that is under threat from the revelations are certain homes in Donegal. Perhaps also votes, but I doubt it.